A developer has stepped up to save KB Woodward’s playground, after the elementary school’s PAC reported up to $30,000 had been drained from their bank account.
Reading the morning paper over breakfast with his wife, Townline president Rick Ilich was saddened by the news.
He felt compelled to help.
“We were just appalled that someone could be that low, or perhaps that desperate, to steal from the kids,” Ilich told the Now.
See also: Surrey PAC says bank account drained after thousands raised for playground
“We have young kids and we certainly respect how important it is for them to burn off a little team. I don’t know who I felt more sorry for, the kids or the teachers,” he added with a chuckle. “But really, I just felt for everyone involved. It’s simply not fair. When people are without you do what you can do.”
The company has donated $30,000 to replace what's gone missing.
KB Woodward PAC president Krystal Ziprick is thrilled and hopes for the chance to thank Ilich in person, perhaps having a celebration for him at the school.
The donation, said Ziprick, is “weight off our shoulders.”
“We fundraised for three years and to have something so disappointing happen, we were trying to come up with ways to make it up, planning back-to-back fundraisers this year,” she revealed. “Now, we’re just about at the full cost of the playground.”
Others have stepped up to help, she added, including many in the community through a GoFundMe page and the Jeff O’Neill show, with a donation of $993.
Click here to visit the donation page.
“The kids are going to be so excited,” said Ziprick, explaining the existing primary playground is old and small and the intermediate kids don’t have their own.
“It’s not enough,” she said, adding she hopes to have the new equipment installed this year.
(Pictured: A rendering of the planned playground.)
“I’m really trying to get it in right away.”
Shortly after news broke of KB Woodward’s PAC account being drained, it was revealed that Mounties were also investigating $20,000 going missing from the PAC at Serpentine Heights Elementary.
Police said Friday that investigations into both cases continue, but had no updates to provide.
